H παγκοσμιοποίηση κατά την εποχή του χαλκού

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Εμπορικά δίκτυα στην Ευρώπη.





Εμπορικά δίκτυα στην Μ. Ανατολή και την Ινδία.

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Long-Distance Trade

Before long, some of these regional trade routes began stretching even farther. As they did, new settlements emerged along the trade routes as places for merchants to meet and exchange goods. With these trading settlements, merchants could deal in products from farther distances and travel farther themselves. By the end of the Bronze Age, merchants were dealing in large-scale regional trade. The entire Mediterranean was connected by trade routes, as was the Middle East, Central Europe, Central Asia, and East Asia. These large-scale regions were formed by people sharing products and ideas on a larger scale than ever before.

Trade of this scale was generally motivated by the demand for rare, often luxury items that were not available on a local level. A Mesopotamian city didn't need to important grains from across the Mediterranean; they had plenty of that. Instead they needed things they couldn't easily get their hands on. Spices and minerals were major parts of these trade routes, but being the Bronze Age, you may be able to guess what materials were in the highest demand: those for making bronze.

Bronze is created from mixing copper with tin. As the demand for bronze increased, so did the demand for copper, and the copper trade was a major industry of the era that dominated regional trade routes. However, it was tin that really defined the need for more expansive trade. Tin is pretty rare, and most tin mines available to Bronze-Age people were relatively small. So, in order to make bronze, societies often had to import tin from far away, and constantly be on the lookout for new trade partners with access to the rare material.


https://study.com/academy/lesson/the-br ... outes.html

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Tin is an essential metal in the creation of tin bronzes, and its acquisition was an important part of ancient cultures from the Bronze Age onward. Its use began in the Middle East and the Balkans around 3000 BC. Tin is a relatively rare element in the Earth's crust, with about 2 parts per million (ppm), compared to iron with 50,000 ppm, copper with 70 ppm, lead with 16 ppm, arsenic with 5 ppm, silver with 0.1 ppm, and gold with 0.005 ppm (Valera & Valera 2003, p. 10). Ancient sources of tin were therefore rare, and the metal usually had to be traded over very long distances to meet demand in areas which lacked tin deposits.

Known sources of tin in ancient times include the southeastern tin belt that runs from Yunnan in China to the Malay Peninsula; Devon and Cornwall in England; Brittany in France; the border between Germany and the Czech Republic; Spain; Portugal; Italy; and central and South Africa (Wertime 1979, p. 1; Muhly 1979). Syria and Egypt have been suggested as minor sources of tin, but the archaeological evidence is inconclusive.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tin_sourc ... ient_times